[Naturella]

Oleanderz, thank you for the kind words! You are such an eager-to-learn doggie mommy, it is awesome! 🙂

Ok, let me first say that I completely second Dori’s suggestion to NOT start rotating foods before she is well recovered from the surgery and back to normal, stool included. Sometimes stress, or the pain meds, can affect the stool, so if you had just started introducing a new brand of food, you wouldn’t know what’s causing the stool change.

But, after she has fully recovered from her surgery, you can start introducing and transitioning her to a new food of your choice. I think that no single dog food is perfect, and they do have varying amounts of protein, carbs, and fat, but all 4 brands are high-quality foods and will offer her a variety in the formulas, tastes, vitamins, etc. Like Dori said, if she’s gaining weight, feed her less, exercise her more; if she’s losing weight, feed her more, and still exercise her – she will be gaining muscle mass, which is healthy.

Now, for the rotation – it really depends on how her tummy’s taking it. Give it at least 10-14 days, adding a little bit of new food to the old at a time, and watching the stool – if stool is good for 2 days or so, add more new food, take more old food out, and so on. If stool is not good, back down the amount of new food, up the old food. When she gets used to rotating, you can switch brands with every big bag (what I do, but with small bags, lol). For now, you can switch to a brand, then exhaust most of the flavors within the brand just so she doesn’t have too many changes at once, then go to another brand. Also, you can add canned plain pumpkin to aid her digestion in the process, or a supplement called Perfect Form from The Honest Kitchen (THK). I swear up and down by it – anytime my Bruno has an upset tummy, it tightens him back up in a snap! But don’t overuse the Perfect Form – use it only as needed, and the amounts to feed are on the package, as well as on THK’s website. Which leads me to…

… if feeding Perfect Form with kibble, you will need to add some water to it. It will look like a greenish soup of kibble, lol. But, with that said, extra moisture added to dry kibble is always good for the dog. You can add plain lukewarm water, yoghurt/kefir, coconut oil and water, or canned food (and water). Any mix of kibble and canned is fine as long as the dog’s tummy is ok with it. So introduce the canned slowly, and not while transitioning between brands. You can also add dehydrated/freeze-dried/air-dried foods and water to kibble as toppers too, canned sardines (no salt added, in water only), fresh vegetables and meats, some fruits, and the above suggestions. Make sure you add NO onions or any grape products (grapes, raisins), some mushrooms.

Finally, where to find Victor dog food: sportdogfood.com Victor GF and Farmina N&D GF are the best options, but Farmina is on the pricy side. Victor is pretty affordable.

Oh, and for the boxes – hope she gets some flying discs in her BarkBox or whatever other boxes she gets! 🙂

Ok, sorry for the novel… Good luck, keep us posted, and let us know if you have any more questions! 🙂

[crazy4cats]

Oh boy, Sam D-
I hope you know what you have gotten yourself in to with this question. Put on your hard helmet! Lol! It seems to be a emotional controversial topic. But, I’m with you. I feel the same way. I still have a box of it left from my bargain trials from Pet Flow I got a while back. I mix it in by dogs kibble a couple days a week. They feel the same way too. They look at me like, “where’s the meat” as well. I think it looks and smells like soup mix too. We don’t hate it and their poops are actually good the next day after eating, but something just doesn’t feel quite right. BDog has used her boxes to make yummy treats for her dog. I’m not sure that I will buy again as it is really expensive for them to be so so about it. Many love to feed their dogs The Honest Kitchen and it does have a pretty good reputation, but I don’t think its for us either. Good luck!

[Sam D]

Ok – I know it’s ground up and in there but I have two types of HK. Embark, which is the turkey and the base mix which has nothing. They look virtually the same except for some dehydrated, light-colored bits that are in the Embark. Is that the turkey? There’s just no possible way that’s enough meat for my dog, if it is the turkey. Sometimes I mix up his HK and it feels like I’m just giving him vegetable soup….

Anyone want to set me straight? I hate to sound like a paranoid person but I just don’t understand how a food looks like that is comparable to the Instinct raw beef or turkey bits we feed him where it looks like ACTUAL meat is the primary content.

• This topic was modified 10 years, 10 months ago by Sam D.

[Nancy B]

Cheryl: The Honest Kitchen is on the 5 Star list. Pricy but good. I just switched to Champion Foods Orijen because the THK food jumped a lot in price. Orijen is just as fresh and wholesome and I’m saving $125/month; free shipping from Chewy. Dogs love it. See Champion Foods video.

[cheryl t]

The Honest Kitchen http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/

[Melissaandcrew]

LosulFirst, I very cleary indicated that I have not had a heartworm positive dog in years. I stated what I was familiar with. I made no claims of fact. The post was not addressed to you. It was a general opinion. That for ME I would and have gone with Immitricide. Obviously you STILL have a problem with me..too bad. You have been angry since I commented about honest kitchen food. Shrug. We are all entitled to post our opinions, and mine remains unchanged that the worms continue to cause damage every day they are present. You are welcome of course to disagree with my opinion ion but you are not entitled to attack me.

Edit.. here in NY slow kill is not considered to be the treatment of choice due to continuing damage and length of time. In NY it is ONLY used in 2 cases 1) dog is too ill or otherwise infirm and unlikely to survive Immitricide or 2) owner can not afford treatment. This may be different from state to state. Some vets will not do slow kill simply for economic reasons again due to continuing damage potential.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 10 months ago by Melissaandcrew.

[InkedMarie]

I believe that is the only canned food (in fact, one of only two foods period…the other being The Honest Kitchen) allowed to call themselves human grade.

[Naturella]

Hey, all!

So, I feed Bruno 4 kinds of the The Honest Kitchen (THK) dehydrated food as toppers 4 times/week (4 meals). I was wondering, would it be good/be bad/not make a difference to mix 2 of the THK Perfect Form packs (the small individual ones, not the cylindrical container) per box of what’s left of the THK foods? I was thinking, this way Bru would get a tiny bit extra probiotics/whatever good things are in the THK with some of his meals regularly, just to keep his tummy super healthy. Or, would that cause his tummy to build a “tolerance” to THK PF, so when I really need to use it, i.e. when his tummy is really upset, it won’t work on him in the recommended dose because he already has some of it almost daily?

Any thoughts, comments, advice?

[weezerweeks]

Why don’t u try nutrisource. People on here have good luck with it. When my Bailey has digestive issues like diarrhea I use Perfect Form and it is wonderful. I think it’s made by the honest kitchen. I also order my food from cheweys and it’s a lot cheaper and u receive it super fast. Good luck.

[Kimi_forever]

Yes they have been on kibble all their life. actually they are my mom and sisters cats, but i try and have some input on them too. They used to be fed purina one, and i made them get off that and told them about merrick because it wasnt so expensive. Now we have just recently (this is the first bag) put them on orijen because i expressed that imo it was worth the money over merrick or wellness core we were trying. I recently have read some of the info on catinfo.org and they said the same thing. The only problem is finding decent canned food not chalked up with carrageenan and other stuff is absurdly expensive, i’ve been pricing it for what it would cost for 3 adult 10lb cats and it’s not pretty. the vet on catinfo.org seems to have a method of making homemade meals that while still more expensive then orijen seems more practical, i think we are going to try her method since she has laid it out so clearly how to prepare source and supplement a cat’s diet in a way that economical and practical to do. I got some samples of Honest Kitchen for them to try, because as my pricing went it was a lot cheaper then canned food and still obviously had moisture from the added water, but they just looked at me like i was crazy for giving them THK. Maybe i should contact the vet from catinfo.org and talk to her and see what she thinks. I like the vet we are seeing okay, he has done wonders for my grandmothers old german shepherd whenever he had problems, but i wasnt thrilled when he suggested putting this cat on Hill’s prescription diet for her being over weight, but i know he had good intentions….We are in the process of trying to transition them off kibble but we will probably have to buy at least one more large bag before we get anything setup for a homemade diet :-\

[Kimi_forever]

I just saw this topic and thought i’d ask a few questions to see if anyone had any input on my treat selection because i feel comfortable with the main diet i am providing just not sure if i am doing the right thing treat wise.

I feed my dog biscuit treats, i try to buy them from quality brands and they are not cheap. but is it bad to feed dogs biscuit type treats? i’ve tried fromm gf biscuits, merrick kitchen bites, brothers complete gf, honest kitchen nuzzles, nutrisource gf, sojo’s gf, wellness gf, and nature’s variety instinct…They are not cheap but are much more affordable then the Orijen freeze dried treats i got for free from chewy.com with my last bag of orijen. I am just wondering if these biscuits are bad treats to give my dog along with her orijen kibble. i give about 4-5 biscuits a day, i know they dont have much meat in them but she loves them so much i continue to buy them for her. would i be better off buying more expensive freeze dried treats like orijen offers in the long run or is it okay to give a premium biscuit like the ones mentioned as a small treat every day? I only ask because my dog is an akita and 85lbs at only 10 months old and even with cheaper freeze dried treats like sojo’s and grandma lucy’s makes it would still be extremely more expensive to buy them, as sojo’s and grandma lucy’s pork freeze dried on chewy.com cost like 3x as much as high end biscuits for equal weight. i just want to know if i’m feeding my dog improperly by trying to save a little cash on her treats….

On another topic, i see many people mentioning giving their dogs bully sticks, and i give them to my dog when i can because they tend to be very expensive, but she loves them so i try to keep some around. I just was curious if anyone used or knew if my source of bullysticks was a quality source. I am currently getting them from bestbullysticks.com , they have nice thick bully sticks for lower price then i’ve seen anywhere: you can get a standard size one for 1.39 (cheaper in bulk) or i just got some jumbo ones (which are huge btw) for 2.19 per stick (cheaper in bulk as well). My question is if these are quality bully sticks and a quality company to trust for my pet, if anyone knows of them or has used them in the past. They say they are made from free range grass fed beef, however the beef comes from brazil unless you buy the made in usa ones for more expensive, and one of my concerns is the origin of the beef used. I have bought the made in usa ones from them in the past but they are much thinner then the brazilian ones when you compare them from what is supposed to be the same size, and much less filled and they are also more expensive. So you pay more for much less when you get the american ones, and since my dog is a large breed and will likely be 95lbs when she is done growing i can’t have thin bully sticks i need thick ones and i need them at a decent price. Does anyone know if bully sticks from brazil should not be trusted? Or where you can get USA made ones that are thick and not priced 3 dollars+ a stick? Any feed back on that site or tips on quality thick bullies for reasonable prices would be very much appreciated…

[Nancy B]

Tera: After 2 years I am priced out of Honest Kitchen, although it’s a great food. Sudden $8 increase for 10 lbs was costing me $225/month for 2 dogs. Now with Orijen (Champion Foods) I pay $75.99 for 2 ounces less than a month’s worth of Honest Kitchen and it’s the same good, natural food. Watch the Champion canine food video introducing the guy who supplies the fish, farmer who supplies the meat, farmer who supplies veggies, fresh eggs. etc. Way out there in Alberta, it’s an impressive facility, 5 stars. Also sell Arcana. I am getting free shipping by Chewy.

[Tera M]

Honest Kitchen.

[Dori]

Susan W.
Quick thought on my part. If you are already feeding a dehydrated food, why are you thinking of switching to Acana? Why not The Honest Kitchen grain free line which is human grade and approved by the FDA to put that on their labels? It’s also rated 5 stars here with the exception of the chicken formula.

[InkedMarie]

I can only tell you that two dog foods are allowed to call themselves human grade: the Honest Kitchen and Weruva. Not much help, sorry.

[Bobby dog]

Kathleen C:
If you are just looking for a low cal/fat treat and your dog has no specific health issues like Rick’s dog take a look at freeze dried treats. You can buy them on-line and in pet stores. I use Stella & Chewy Carnivore Kisses and Stewart’s Pro-Treats. If your dog has weight issues remove some food from his meals to compensate for the extra calories. If the calories are not written on the labels contact the company for the amount. Several posters also use kibble for treats adjusting the meals they feed accordingly to compensate for calories. Aquariangt also suggested The Honest Kitchen treats. I don’t know of any low cal treats that are large in size, normally the larger the treat the more calories.

http://stewartpet.com/our-products/treats/pro-treat-freeze-dried-treats/
http://www.stellaandchewys.com/dog-kisses.php

[aquariangt]

I use these chicken breast strips

http://www.boulderdogfoodcompany.com/canine-treats/chicken/chicken-breast-strips

They are also pretty high value, so work well for training. The honest kitchen treats are pretty low fat as well, though I don’t particularly like the pecks and smooches-they take my dogs a long time to chew, so ok for an around the house treat, but I don’t like them for training. I love the quickies though! they are super low calorie

• This reply was modified 10 years, 10 months ago by aquariangt.

[Dori]

Hey Everyone, I just got this email from The Honest Kitchen.

For one week only, buy one box of Halcyon duck dog food, or
Hale base mix, and get one box free!

It’s not even March yet, and we’re already going mad! We’ve got a little stock of our three newest recipes on hand, and a little birdie told us that some pups haven’t had a chance to try them yet! So we’re giving them away for free! While supplies last, grab any if our new diets and get a lovely 4lb or 10lb box of the same recipe, absolutely free!

Use promo code: HKBOGO

To Order: Simply add increments of 2 boxes of the same size and diet to your cart (i.e. 2x 7lb boxes of Hale, and/or 4x 10lb Halcyon) and click ‘add to cart’. Then enter the promo code above into your cart and you will see the 2nd box ring up for FREE!

[crazy4cats]

Hi Peggy-
The Perfect Form is a digestive supplement made by The Honest Kitchen. A few pet food stores carry it, but you can also order it from THe Honest Kitchen’s website or Amazon. I’ve used it on several occasions also. Good luck!

[Peggy]

Thanks everyone.

Naturella, the only place I can find The Honest Kitchen on DFA is here –
/dog-food-reviews/honest-kitchen-dog-food/

I don’t see Perfect Form?

• This reply was modified 10 years, 10 months ago by Peggy.
• This reply was modified 10 years, 10 months ago by Peggy.

[jakes mom]

Cheryl, the mix I used was from Know Better Pet Food. If you go back to the first page you’ll see I originally asked about a mix for my dog. Bobby dog gave me links for a couple of companies that sell mixes and I decided to try a mix for the cats to save myself the trouble of constantly lugging home cases of canned cat food (I have 5 cats and a dog). But the cats are not cooperating. I have used Honest Kitchen for Jake and the aroma is not as strong as this other brand, I agree, it smells pretty good!
Jake is helping me use up the raw cat food I’ve made so it will not go to waste. He’s a happy boy at least!

[Cheryl Pepper Millie Sophie]

Jakes Mom,
I do not have cats, but if you wouldn’t mind telling me what mix are you referring to?
I know that the Honest kitchen mixes that i have used just have a veggie soup mix kind of smell-really want to add it to soup i make for myself

[Cheryl Pepper Millie Sophie]

Hi Peggy,
I too, am trying hard to figure out how to introduce the various commercial raw proteins to my girls, I think we just have to do it!!! Slowly, but, I do truly believe it is their best interests long term.
My new puppy Millie is on orijen & horizon kibble both excellent, but I do think as many have advised if she can handle all raw I am going to go for it. Today will be the 1st for the Vital Essentials Fish, I am keeping my fingers & toes crossed she & my older gal Pepper will do ok.
Pepper has been doing ok on the Honest Kitchen, which i plan to introduce to Millie soon.
Good luck to you –

[Cheryl Pepper Millie Sophie]

Hi Everyone,
I need some advice if Millie my 7 month old mini schnauzer is : 1. too young to stop Puppy kibble? 2. If she isn’t too young to stop the puppy kibble, can I feed her the various kinds of the grain free Honest Kitchen(that would be the rotating) with toppers of lightly cooked meat or poultry for 1 of her meals? Does the Honest Kitchen have enough nutrients for a young gal or would i have to add various supplements/antioxidents/oils to that meal?
For the 2nd meal would it be ok to give her commercial raw? Rotating within say Primal or Vital Essentials (or whatever raw co. that will ship to me) their various lower fat proteins.
I do know the VE does not add the fruit/veggies so could I top that meal off with maybe some cooked veggies.
BC mentioned that it may be time to cut out her noon meal,so I am trying to figure out how to get her off kibble & increase the raw & introduce the dehydrated.
Thanks so much to all for the great advice and guidance you ALL have given me in these past months. I can’t tell you how much it has meant to me & the girls 🙂

[InkedMarie]

I only use grainfree treats so none of those work for me. I take as much care choosing treats as I do dog food. The treats we use here are some made by Buddy Biscuits, The Honest Kitchen and SoJo’s. Treats go stale here anyway so we don’t have much here.

[Cheryl Pepper Millie Sophie]

Mom,
The more the merrier, I had booked marked this supplement a long time ago & I think, if memory serves me ,asked Shawna about it and she too wasn’t crazy about it. She prefers the STANDARD PROCESS line of supplements & pepper (my older gal ) was on the various kinds for different issues, I stopped them 2yrs ago when i almost lost my angel to aspiration pneumonia, never started them up again.

I was looking at some website about schnauzers (guess it was a breeders site) & it was a must you had the puppies on this supplement or the health guarantee would be voided_i found that to be interesting & then BC mentioned the same thing-so I just thought MAYBE? my puppy Millie should try it??

How do you like your probotic and do you give it every day? I was using Mercola’ s for a long time & just started the Honest Kitchen’s Perfect Form and like it (at least for now) better. I am always looking for a back up.
i like the ingredients in the Vet Classics chew-where do you purchase that as well as your probiotic- amazon??

[Heather L]

Dog Obseed, i was feeding him dry kibble ( Fromm family) before and after his tooth extrations. its been 2 yrs since that and hes done great with it.
thanks Dog Foodie i will try that Honest Kitchen. i am headed to the pet store tomorrow to get some new food. i bought the Fresh pet (both log and soft chunks) he just puts his nose up.. UGG.. LOL.. thank goodness i have two other hungery little buggers becaue none of my food attemts are going in the garbage. at the end of all of this im going to have 3 picky eaters. lol lol…

[DogFoodie]

What about a dehydrated food that you reconstitute with hot water like The Honest Kitchen. It has texture to it that he would probably appreciate and you could make it as thick or as soupy as you need. FreshPet would be like the size and shape of kibble, but softer like real food.

Poor little guy.

[Cheryl Pepper Millie Sophie]

BC,
If you wouldn’t mind I need your input.
Millie my 6 1/2 month old is eating A.M. 1/3 c Orijen Puppy kibble (which is about to go out of the rotation) mixed w Horizon Legacy Puppy (that bag is larger so she will be on that a little longer) as a topper she is getting 1 oz lightly boiled beef.
Noontime: 2-3 Primal Rabbit nuggents w either carrots or cooked squash & zucchini 1-2tbsps.
Suppertime: 1/3 c kibble (same as brkfst) w 1oz boiled chicken.
She does get cocotherapy dried fruit or veggies 2 handfuls
A few times a week she will either a bully stick or a cow ear.
I want to take the noontime feeding out as well as eventually giving her kibble less frequently and adding the honest kitchen in the rotation
She picked up wt. very quickly she is close to what the breeder told me was her adult weight (15lbs).
In your opinion am I feeding her enough? too much?
According to the bags of kibble & that is if she were only eating kibble she should have almost 1 c per day. But since I add the meat as toppers & the raw for lunch, I hesitate to increase the kibble.
Thanks so much

[InkedMarie]

Michael,
where is thi auto ship from? I had autoships with Darwins Raw, Chewy.com and The Honest Kitchen; there was no fee to cancel. I would never use a company that did that.

[Rita G]

I started my dogs on Stella and Chewy raw frozen patties today. It seems like the recommended amount is much more than I was feeding before. One was on kibble and the other was on the Honest Kitchen. Are the recommended amounts correct?

[Cheryl Pepper Millie Sophie]

Dori,
Please, please forgive me for not replying sooner to your kind post of letting me know the foods in your rotation.
I am in then process of renovating a Townhouse I purchased last May and between that and the girls well i am under a great deal of pressure.
I am trying to get all this in my brain and figure out how to go about the full transitions and rotations to raw and probably Honest Kitchen varieties.
It’s pepper i most worry about, so far it seems Millie can transition easier than pepper.
Concerning Nature’s Variety Raw ( and I don’t mean to sound like a snob) is that a good company-I know you do EXHAUSTIVE research,I just thought since all the big box stores carry it, that it was just a so-so company. AS I guess you can surmise by now, I make it very difficult for myself. If it’s too easy, I always question why??
But your endorsement means a great deal.
I can’t seem to find the primal pronto but will call the company next week.

I know you must be familiar with Susan Thixton.
She provides a “Best Foods list yearly.
Have you ever heard of “Fresh Fetch” or “Frenchie’s Kitchen”Fresh Fetch looks interesting-
these are cooked so you may not be too interested in them, just thought you MAY want to look at them.
Dori, thank you so much again, I sound like a broken record but you are really a very special and lovely person.

[Cheryl Pepper Millie Sophie]

Would you consider dehydrated food like the Honest Kitchen, they have grain free & grain inclusive mixes, also mixes where you add the protein of your choice.
Orijen has a kibble called regional red I think?? it does not contain chicken.
Freeze dried is also something to look at

[Debra J H]

My two love Stella & Chewy’s freeze-dried… any flavor. But not Honest Kitchen. I tried three options of that and they are not liking it. And Tucker will eat anything. A snood covers long ears to keep the food out of them.

[Dori]

Cheryl,
The commercial raw frozen foods that I use in rotation are:
Answer’s Detailed Raw Frozen (if you can’t find it, please call them and speak with Jacquie, she’s the owner, and she’ll let you know who sells the food in your area. Don’t go by the store locater on their website because a lot of stores carry their goat milk but not their food and they are listed in their store locater because they do sell Answer’s Detailed just not the food).

Primal Pronto and Primal Formulas. Vital Essentials Raw. Nature’s Variety Instinct Raw.

Stella & Chew’s Raw (I feed this once in a blue moon. My dogs eat it but I’m not crazy about it. I come back to it periodically to give it a try because it does get good feed back from posters and is highly reviewed on this site and wonder if I’m just missing something). I will say that the company has a great reputation.

Commercial Frozen Raw foods are, by nature, high in fat. None of my three toy dogs have issues with high fat so it’s not a concern of mine. Beef, in my experience, will always be higher in fat than other proteins. If memory serves me, I think Nature’s Variety Instinct Raw and Vital Essentials Raw are probably lower in fat than most others. As I said, my girls don’t have issues with high fat diets. I have always contended that it is not the quantity of fat in a diet, it is the quality of the fat. Now, with that said, I don’t feed foods that have a higher level of fat than they do protein. I’m not paying high prices for fat. You have to keep in mind that the lowest % of fat that I feed is probably around 38% and up to around 58 – 59%. You have to know your animals and what they will be well with and can tolerate and thrive on. That goes not only with fat but protein and carbs as well. Also I think I’ve told you that I do not feed any food that has poultry, fowl, of any sort. One of my girls is highly intolerant of all forms including the different chicken and turkey fats that are put in some foods. Interestingly enough, she has no problems with eggs so long as it is no more than once every two to three weeks, maybe longer.

Moving on the Freeze Dried, I feed Primal Freeze Dried, Vital Essentials Freeze Dried and again, once in a blue moon I’ve wanted to like Stella & Chew’s Freeze Dried.

Dehydrated Foods: The only dehydrated food I feed is The Honest Kitchen. I’ve tried a lot of the others and for one reason or another I don’t like them.

There are, of course, foods in all categories above that I don’t feed for my own various reasons but that doesn’t mean that because I don’t care for them or how my dogs do on them, that they are not going to do well for other dogs. Katie, my allergy girl, has a list of food intolerances as long as my arm that I must avoid. Katie is the reason that I went to commercial raw foods and my other two dogs were lucky enough to come along for the ride and thrive on their diets. Dogs, like people, are all different. We all react to different ingredients differently. Some issues I have with some foods may not be an issue with others or may not be any issue for their dogs. (I don’t mention cats because I don’t have any. I’m allergic to animals which is why my dogs have always been of the hair variety and not fur). I am, fortunately, in a position that I can feed all 5 star rated commercial raw, freeze dried and dehydrated foods from companies that I trust that (in my opinion) have quality ingredients and quality customer service.

Ask away, I’m happy to help with my experiences and my trials and errors of which there have been many along the way. I’ve pretty much got all the kinks worked out for Hannah, Katie and Lola. I’m hoping that Millie and Pepper are well. Though you didn’t take Shawna’s advice years ago I’m glad you’ve jumped on board now. Better late than never as the saying goes.

[Cheryl Pepper Millie Sophie]

Dori,
would you mind if you could give me some choices for a dehydrated food beside the honest kitchen or in your opinion is that about the best available? I know you mentioned Sojos.
As for commercial raw beside Primal & Vital Essentials any brand that comes to your mind with some lower fat offerings. i don’t think I will be able to get the OC Raw seems very hard to get and they don’t ship to consumers.
I just like to have options for them-I guess there are enough varieties within the same brand, but I want to make sure there diet is balanced overall.
Thanks so much Dori.
I have so much going on right now, it is so hard for me to devote the time I really need to research all the various brands.
I so appreciate all the information you have given me.

[Cheryl Pepper Millie Sophie]

Dori,
I had wanted to post to you sooner, but was waiting.
OMG Dori, I am amazed, Millie eats it so fast its incredibly.
Pepper ADORES it she got 1 whole nugget today & it was gone in a second.
Oh, if pepper can continue to tolerate raw, at least I could rotate every few weeks with the raw and the Honest Kitchen.
I am going to take the freeze dried out for Millie due to the high fat and if they can both tolerate the raw, who could ask for more, at least for my kids.
Thank you Dori sincerely for giving me a push.

Shawna if you peek in I am so sorry for not listening to you yrs ago, I never knew you could buy commercial raw-raw to me meant raw meat poultry etc, and i just couldn’t risk giving it to Pepper.

I hadn’t heard back from OC raw-i emailed the company, I can get Vital Essentials ordered for me locally, so I know I can interchange that with the Primal nuggets.

I would like to get millie off Kibble even though I am feeding her Orijen & Horizon.
I know you told me and forgive me for asking again, in your rotation you feed raw & dehydrated, I think?? I remember you saying you don’t feed kibble of any kind, i hope i am correct in saying this.
Aimee worried me a bit especially in Millie’s case that the Honest Kitchen would need be a complete meal to feed her during her growing stage, I guess that’s why I keep the kibble in.
I add a bit of lightly cooked meat or poultry & just feed a little less of the HK mix to Pepper & that’s using there protein inclusive mixes, I guess i could do the same for Millie.
I am not confident enough to just transition Millie to HK now, so far so good with the raw, and like you told me safer to stay on 1 new food for awhile, which I am doing.
Thank you so much again.
You take care.

[l h]

Better take a look at the vitamins, most are china sourced. Unless a company says they use USA based vitamin mix, most are.. Honest Kitchen one of the very few that does.

[Rita G]

Why isn’t Honest Kitchen an Editor’s Choice brand?

[Sam D]

We have a puppy where we want to give him a varied diet. High quality puppy kibble one some days and raw food (like honest kitchen, Aunt Jeni’s and Instincts frozen raw) on other days. So far he’s only had Taste of the Wild grain-free puppy.

If raw and kibble digest in the gut differently….then how can you really mix the two types of foods for a proper transition? We were just going to start him on Instinct Raw frozen chunks in his Honest Kitchen base mix but we’re worried he will not handle it well and then we won’t know if its the sudden change OR the food itself that’s bothering him.

Advice? Tips? THANKS!

[Susan]

Hi Giles, try not to feed kibble, its too hard to digest, especially when they get older, your best to cook meals, Rice has little rounded corners which can irritate the bowel & get stuck in pockets of the bowel… my boy can eat grounded rice in kibble but when I feed boiled rice he gets his rumbling, grumbling bowel & diarrhoea, but if ur dog has been doing OK on the rice she my be able to handle rice, Susan Lauten told me to cook rice noodles instead of the rice, you just soak the rice noodles in boiling water until soft & they’re ready…..Pumkin is EXCELLENT, it soothes the GI track, I mix 1 spoon with all meals Patch eats, I boil a heap then mash it all up & put in ice cube tray, cover with cling wrap, I pop out what I need the night before & keep in fridge for next day, we don’t have pumkin in a tin in Australia….. Honest Kitchen has base mixes, you just add the cooked meat, Preference, Kindly are grainfree & potato free, Hale has grains…You have so much to pick from in America your very lucky, I cant get Honest kitchen in Australia…our laws are to strict when it comes to food & animal food…..

[Dori]

Hi Kelly. My suggestion would be do go completely grain free. Avoid poultry and all the night shade plants some of which are white potatoes, tomatoes. Just google night shade plants. They are all inflammatory and you want to avoid them. You also want to avoid soy. Also, as Cheryl stated, rice is also inflammatory. You need to remove as many inflammatory ingredients from your dogs diet. My 15 year old 7 lb. Maltese, Hannah, tended to have high liver levels and is also on Denamarin daily. Her regular vet had prescribed 1/2 tablet a day but the specialist I took her to (at the recommendation of her regular vet) so that we could rule out any issues going on told me to give her a whole tablet once a day for the rest of her life. I’m sure you are aware that it must be given 1 to 1/2 hours before meals. Not with the meal. I also give her 200 mg. of vitamin E (soy free) once a day (also prescribed by both the specialist and Hannah’s vet). Mercola.com is the only company that has a vitamin E without soy that I have been able to find. When I originally went grain free Brothers Complete was what I was feeding but had to stop feeding their foods because all their foods include turkey or chicken in them and one of my dogs (I have three toy dogs) is intolerant of all poultry (all fowl). For the most part back around 3 years ago I switched to THK Zeal (only one of their formulas I could find that didn’t contain any poultry). I then added commercial raw diets to their diets. I feed rotational within brands and also different brands. The Honest Kitchen Zeal is still in rotation. I also feed some Freeze Dried foods. Hannah’s liver levels have come down considerably and just a shade above normal. They were crazy high awhile back.

[Cheryl Pepper Millie Sophie]

Hi Kelly,
My 11 1/2 y.o. mini schnauzer has similar issues -bad bouts of gastritis IBD/IBS just suffered a bad bout in December.
I came to the conclusion that she can no longer process kibble any kind-she was on the Amicus Grain-free Senior,did very well on it. But as they say things change
But it seemed every so often the problems reappeared.
In December after every single test was given except an endoscopy -i changed her to lightly cooked ground turkey breast with canned organic pumpkin -then switched from the pumpkin to sweet potato, nothing else for 3-4 weeks ,now your kid may have an infection have you had her stool tested to rule out any infection?
Now I was told she should dry a vet diet-hydrolozed protein-she she was also vomiting and reguritating. I choose to try something else and if that didn’t work ,well to go ahead & try what the vet recommended.
She is on The honest Kitchen now a rehydrated food i buy her grain free, they have various types.
my thoughts are stop the rice-rice can cause inflammation, and she has an inflammatory process occurring with the colitis episode.
Dr. karen Becker has some excellent articles just on this subject-its on the Mercola.com website.
If you can buy some organic canned PLAIN PUMPKIN -stop the kibble completely. You might also offer her a cooked sweet potato, with the ground turkey. I know this may sound odd, but pepper does better on Ground turkey ,chicken & beef than she did on lightly boiled chicken breast. Maybe try a ground version of the turkey or chicken. She could have developed an allergy to egg or even the chicken. You might want to try her on a novel protein,a protein that she never ate, I bought a rabbit at Whole foods & boiled it for her. Her tummy needs about 3-4 weeks of rest, that’s why I say the soft low residue foods-no treats nothing that cause cause the inflammation to linger.
I just personally think, that as they get older the kibble is just too hard on them, and I soaked her kibble to make it easier. When they have this inflammatory disease, I think they need a softer diet.
There are some canned foods also that you may want to try, on that I really don’t know, i have never fed canned. I know people have good things to say about WERUVA & other people can guide you on that.
I hope some of this helps you, I will be glad to help further if you have any more questions.
Good Luck
Fondly,
Cheryl
I see you provided your email I will email you the site to Dr. becker and all you have to do is put in the search IBD/IBS

[Cheryl Pepper Millie Sophie]

Hi Dori,
It’s funny about feeding raw, & what the term implies.
The orijen freeze dried, I just opened & crushed & gave her, yet the thought of opening commercial raw freaks me out, i keep asking should i wait should i introduce it after this bag of Orijen is finished? Very silly I know.
These babies are my kids, since I have no children, I worry so-some may not understand, but, I feel you do.
The breeder called me & told me she just had another litter with 4 females-do I want another, I am so tempted to say yes to give Millie a pal her own age,but fear it would be way too much for pepper to handle,since getting Millie in Oct., its been hard on Pepper her age & add the blindness, I keep going back & forth.
Anyway, I digress, oh yes I agree with you I never never introduce anything at night, believe it or not, i don’t even like introducing anything over the weekend, when the vets are off.
I dislike the ER here, cost a fortune of money & not very nice.
I just ordered the Pro Den on Amazon, i will try it on pepper.
I am hoping to cut down on pepper’s dose of reglan next week since she seems to be ok on the Honest Kitchen-she had the turkey this am & I upped the protein with some beef-made her bowl so shiny almost didn’t have to clean it!!!
you have good weekend

[Cheryl Pepper Millie Sophie]

Aimee,
You will have to give me a few days to digest all that you posted, some comments I am still shaking my head about.
You are an intelligent well read well researched person, yet some comments just don’t make sense.
I am so curious (yet it isn’t my business) to know why you have such an axe to grind with the Honest Kitchen, yet vet diets are o.k.
You don’t think offering vet clinics trips kickbacks?? Where I come from that is a kickback, plain & simple.
Food isn’t an income source, its a WINDFALL to a vet practice its a cha-ching, do you think posters here are the average pet parent? Let me tell you they are not. you know that, you take the time to answer & help people, yet you think the veterinary profession is above reproach. If I am making wrong assumptions, I am sorry. Your sister’s clients may be the exception, but, they may be also better at hiding money & telling your sister only what they want her to know. Sorry if that sounds harsh. You may call me bitter & yes you would be correct-those incompetent **** BLED YES BLED ME,because they saw how much I loved my angel & that I would try to move heaven & earth to save her-Aimee how would you like to be told your fur kid had cancer only to be told by the head of the reproduction dept @ LSU Veterinary School she had her period!!!!! I didn’t know wether to laugh or cry, I called the idiot & told him he needs to go back to school !! I could go on & on, I have no respect for any of them. It’s money money money plain & simple! Yes there are some god vets, but those are rare, I have found only one & he is getting ready to retire
Don’t you think it’s easier to take what these vets say buy the crap pour it in the dish & not even look at the ingredients? People on this site spend hrs, days ,weeks searching for alternatives.
It’s the same with us people get a script from the dr. & on your way, don’t exercise don’t change the way you eat, just take a pill.
I will continue this but the fur-kids want to eat, I must comply

[aimee]

Hi Cheryl,

In regards to vet diets.. I think there are diets marketed for reasons that are questionable at best and on the other hand see that there are veterinary diets that really fulfill a need.

In regards to the ingredients in the vet diets, I don’t vilify ingredients. I look at each ingredient as to what it brings to the table. I don’t know if you have stumbled upon “Dog Talk” podcasts. I’ve listened to a lot of them by a boarded nutritionist Sean Delaney. You can find them here : http://www.radiopetlady.com/archives-pet-food-advisors.htm Listen to the one dated 5- 9-2013 as it pertains to the “ingredient” issue. The host questions Dr Delaney in regards to the ingredients used in a kidney diet. I found it very interesting.

Do the vet diets have ingredients in them that are dangerous. None that I’d be concerned about. I just don’t get all that hyped up about things that others do. After researching in peer reviewed papers in Pub Med I find that my fears are quelled after looking at data. If someone doesn’t want to feed a particular ingredient for whatever reason than they shouldn’t. You have to do what you are comfortable with.

To those that commented on “kickbacks” Perhaps this is an issue with how we define kickback. If a person receives a benefit contingent upon a contract/ sale that he/she arranged between two parties and is not one of the two parties in the contract/sale I see that as a kickback. When a vet buys a diet from a company, marks it up and sells it, that’s normal business. The vet gives money to Hills…the client gives money to the vet. Hills doesn’t give money to the vet.

In The Honest Kitchen program the vet recommends the diet and is given a coupon code to give to the client. The client goes to the site and enters into a contract with Honest Kitchen and enters the coupon number identifying who sent them to the THK site. Honest Kitchen then gives a benefit to the vet which was contingent upon the contract between THK and the client. That’s a kickback!

The other kickback program I’m aware of is Chewy dot com. The vet recommends a diet to the client and recommends that they get it through Chewy. The client goes to chewy website and orders the diet and puts his vets name down as the prescribing vet. Chewy sends a fax to the vet and the vet signs it. Chewy then pays the vet for the script. That’s a kickback.

Hill’s sponsors a seminar, it is free for vets to attend. Does that meet the criteria of kickback? No.. because attendance to the seminar is not contingent upon any arranged contracts between Hills and the client. Attendance isn’t even contingent between any contract between Hills and the vet. Hill’s want vets to come to a seminar so that they can hopefully sway the vets to choose to use their products over a competitors. It is marketing by Hills.

Trips?? Maybe as a contest… win a trip to a vet conference for example. But then again entering the contest isn’t contingent on a contract between client and a company. In fact I think there are even laws that say a contest has to be open to all such that a vet who has never even purchased a product from the company offering the contest can participate.

In regards to vets selling food they buy it mark it up and sell it just as a pet store would or Chewy does or whatever. A vet may carry a particular food because he/she truly thinks it is best and wants to make it available. They may carry it because they want the client to visit the practice every 3-4 weeks to build “good will” between the client and the practice and they may carry it as another income source to support the practice.

Of those three I think income source comes in dead last. I’m saying this as a person whose sister is an accountant who has had vet practices as clients.

[InkedMarie]

I know that The Honest Kitchen contains nothing from China.

[Ryan Y]

The honest kitchen beams and wishes are great.
Well, as long as there are no fish intolerance with your pet.

Beams last my american eskimo adult a decent amount of time. Pure catfish.
I also have an 9 pound mini australian ahelherd, a skinny “beam” will last her a very long time.
And they’re a solid price. Especially compared to most of the junk out there.

[aquariangt]

As far as THK goes-they do offer an employee incentive program of sorts for retail as well. At the shop, when we first started carrying THK, we had to take a little mini online course which explained the process THK uses for making their food, and then they give you vouchers to turn into your distributor for 3 free boxes of the honest kitchen (just 3, and they have an expiration date) so that you can try it on your animals to see how they do, and explain firsthand their benefits. While I did take advantage of this, I had already fed it, so I didn’t need much encouragement on that end. And 3 boxes lasts me a looong time since I use it as a topper, and not as their sole meal. I can only assume they do similar programs for vet offices.

However, that is not the same deal as I understand (also firsthand information) about Hills and the vet clinic my cousin works at. That is a certain rebate percentage off the direct order from hills based on how much of it has sold, which results in higher profits for the clinic, as they aren’t lowering the cost of the food because of this. Not unlike what happens with food purveyors and my company in the food world. The difference is, I order all kinds of food from these purveyors, not just hills 🙂 Vets, like almost any business, still have a certain amount of sales within their position that is asked of them

[crazy4cats]

Actually, the original poster (Jake’s mom) started this thread to ask for opinions and recommendations on dinner mixes, specifically, The Honest Kitchen. Aimee gave hers. Several people don’t like it. (Aimee’s opinion) I guess it’s up to Jake’s mom to decide.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 11 months ago by crazy4cats.